


The Star Shop

by TragicAlex



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, Background Jeongin/Felix, Background Seungmin/Hyunjin, Fluff, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mutual Pining, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 17:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20979899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TragicAlex/pseuds/TragicAlex
Summary: The star shop owner doesn’t sell stars. The shop still opens, the door remains unlocked but the man who stands behind the counter will always refuse if you ask for a star. Many a desperate person has gone to try to change his mind, never has it worked.The star shop owner wasn’t always like this. There was a time in which he sold stars, but something happened about 3 years ago, and now he doesn't sell.





	The Star Shop

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #14 - In a world where stars can be purchased, possessing one in your name can make your wish come true; however, the district’s resident owner of the star shop refuses to sell stars to anyone because using it means one has to give up something equally valuable as the wish in return.

It was a normal day for Bang Chan, many people had come into his shop, asking for a star, a wish. Chan of course explained to them the risks, how the wish will take something of equal value, so the world remains balanced, some will back down not prepared to lose something, some will stay strong in their resolve and Chan will sell them a star.

If anything, Chan was bored, that was until he walked in, probably the most beautiful man Chan had ever seen. The man looked around the shop, before he walked up to the counter, to Chan. The man smiled so beautifully at Chan, before he opened his mouth to speak.

“Hi are you the owner?” The man asked.

Chan nodded, he swallowed down the lump in his throat, “uh Yeah that’s me, do you want to buy a star?” He asked.

The man chuckled softly and shook his head, his laugh was the most beautiful sound Chan had ever heard, “No, I actually came to invite you to hang out with me and my friends,” The man said, smiling at Chan.

Chan tilted his head, and furrowed his brow, “But you don’t know me, and I don’t know you,” Chan said confused.

“Well, I know you sell people stars which gives them wishes, which can do a whole lot of good, and I heard that you don’t have many friends and well, the just doesn’t seem right to me, so I thought why not invite you to hang out with me and my friends, that way you get to actually have some friends,” The man explained.

“Well I mean that’s a very good point, and vey kind of you, I should introduce myself, I’m Chan, Bang Chan,” Chan replied holding his hand out to the handsome stranger.

“I’m Lee Minho,” Minho replied, taking Chan’s outstretched hand and shaking it, “So does that mean you’ll hang out with us tonight?”

“Yes, I would be honoured to hang out with you and your friends Lee Minho” Chan replied, beaming at the man. Lee Minho a pretty name for a gorgeous face.

“Excellent, I can’t wait to tell everyone else, I’ll come pick you up at 7 see you later Bang Chan” Minho said excitedly running out of the shop.

Chan watched him go a smile on his face. He couldn’t wait to see Lee Minho again.

The rest of the day felt like it passed by agonisingly slow, as the hours ticked by. Chan ended up closing the shop a little early wanting some extra time to get ready, for when he got to hang out with Minho. Obviously, he knew this wasn’t a date, hell he barely knew the other, but he couldn’t help how he wanted to impress Minho, they may not know each other, but Chan was already smitten.

Chan was ready about an hour too early, and so spent the next hour waiting for Minho by pacing around his flat. After what felt like hours but was actually only about 30 minutes there was a knock at the door. Chan groaned and ran downstairs expecting to tell a customer that unfortunately the shop was closed and that they should come back tomorrow, he opened the door to find Minho stood there.

“You’re early” Chan said dumbly staring at the boy almost star struck by how good Minho looked.

“Yeah I am, sorry, I hope you don’t mind, I just got tired of waiting around.” Minho said.

“It’s fine, uh do you want to come in, or should we go now?” Chan asked, he wasn’t quite sure what the correct reaction was, he wasn’t use to actually hanging out with people.

Minho chuckled softly noticing the olders awkwardness, “We can go now, if that okay with you hyung? It is okay if I call you hyung right?” Minho asked, smiling at the boy.

Chan nodded “Of course, well that would be if you’re born after 97’” Chan replied easily, something about the boy made talking to him the easiest thing in the world, no matter how nervous Chan was around his new friend.

“I was born in 98’ so hyung it is,” Minho said a wide grin forming on his face.

“Hyung it is” Chan agreed, smiling himself.

The pair left the shop, Minho leading the older to where they were going to meet up with the younger’s friends. Chan of course was nervous, having Minho like him was one thing, but meeting 7 other people all of whom might not actually like him was well nerve wrecking. He wanted to make a good impression since these people were important to Minho, and whilst he may not actually know Minho that well, it has been too long since he last had friends so it would be nice to get closer and actually have people to kill the crippling loneliness Chan had, had to get accustom to over the years.

The pair walked in silence, it wasn’t an awkward silence by any means, no it was comfortable. Chan felt happy that whilst they may have only met that morning neither of them really felt a need to fill the silence that had fallen between them.

Minho stopped outside a small restaurant; Minho turned around to the older grinning at him. “Read to meet my friend’s hyung?” Minho asked, clearly excited.

“I feel like I’m your boyfriend about to meet your parents for the first time, and we’ve barely known each other a day,” Chan joked, with a slight chuckle.

“I’m taking that means you’re nervous,” Minho said.

“Very, but I need more friends so let’s do this.” Chan replied honestly.

“That’s the spirit hyung,” Minho grinned.

The pair entered the restraunt together. At the back of the establishment sat the only people occupying it, clearly it must have been out of hours for the business. Sat at the booth were 7 boys, all around the same age group.

Minho walked over with Chan trailing behind him, with each step Chan got more and more nervous, he hoped the others would like him.

“Hey guys, this is Channie-Hyung, the star shop owner, now please be nice to him” Minho said, when he has reached the table, Chan stopped next to Minho.

“You say that like we’re going to bully him,” One of the boys replied, he was wearing an all-black outfit.

“Well Changbin, you might,” Minho said, with an accusatory tone, “Hyung, let me introduce you to everyone,” Minho said, steering the topic in a different direction.

“On this side of the table, we have Felix, who is also my brother, Jeongin, his boyfriend, Changbin, my best friend, and Woojin-hyung, the common sense of this group.” Minho gestured to each of them in turn, as he told Chan their names, he then turned to the other side of the table, “and here we have Seungmin and Hyunjin, who are both disgustingly in love- “

“We aren’t that bad,” Hyunjin whined, cutting Minho off.

“You are literally, sat in Seungmin’s lap right now,” Minho pointed out.

“Okay, Fair point,” Hyunjin said, giving in.

“And finally, we have Jisung, a total dork,” Minho said introducing the final member of the friend group.

“I’m not that much of a dork” Jisung whined

“You kinda are,” Changbin replied

“am not” Jisung said, a pout already forming on his lips.

And that was how the night continued, with playfully teasing and a lot of joking, and also the odd accidental food fight (at least Felix swore he didn’t mean to get mashed potato on Minho’s top, but no one quite believed him). Chan not only had more fun than he’s had in years, but he also ended up finding himself a group of people, of friends, he truly felt at home with. He couldn’t wait to hang out with all of them again soon.

Minho walked him back to his flat and conversation flowed easily between the two as they got to know more about each other. Such as Chan learned that Minho had 3 cats all of whom are rescues, he also learned the youngers favourite colour, the fact he uses Febreze instead of perfume or aftershave, and he also learned Minho’s birthday which was two weeks from now.

Chan and Minho stopped just outside the door to the shop.

“Oh my god hyung you’re shop?!” Minho exclaimed pointing to where a window had been broken.

Chan sighed and walked over to it looking into see the crushed broken glass, he opened the door and stepped inside, Minho followed him in mouth still wide open in shock. The shop looked a complete mess, glass had been broken, book shelves pushed to the floor, etc. Minho and Chan looked over the shop to see what else was damaged.

“Has anything been stolen hyung?” Minho asked

Chan shook his head, “No, No, it was probably someone desperate for a star, its okay though I keep them all looked in a safe in my apartment above the shop, so nothing has been stolen, just a lot of broken things instead,” Chan replied.

“Does this happen a lot?” Minho asked.

“Yeah, stars are sometime the only chance people have and well, people can do some really dumb shit when there desperate, its okay though, it’s part of the job I guess,” Chan shrugged, “Even so, I still had so much fun tonight” Chan said changing the topic to a lighter one.

“So, did I, we absolutely all need to hang out again” Minho said quickly.

“I agree, and well it would be nice to hang out with just you again too, that doesn’t mean I don’t love the others I do, they were all so wonderful and fun, but well I uh, I would love to get to know just you a little bit more, if that’s okay?” Chan asked, the words falling out of his mouth, he was already so enamoured by the younger.

Minho blushed at the words, “I would be delighted to spend time with only you hyung, I really want to get to know you more too,” Minho said, nodding.

“Well then how about coffee, tomorrow, I can close the shop early,” Chan offered.

“Are you sure that’s okay, what if someone tries to break in again? These stars are so important,” Minho said, worry clear on his face

“It’ll be fine Minho, I mean what’s a few hours, I doubt anything bad will happen if I close up a little early,” Chan said easily, knocking away the concern.

“Well then, there’s no way for me to refuse, tomorrow it is” Minho agreed, a smile appearing on his face.

“Goodbye, Lee Minho” Chan said.

“Goodbye, Bang Chan” Minho replied.

The younger walked away, and Chan entered the shop and went up into his flat. He couldn’t wait until he got to see Minho again tomorrow. The younger already brightening up his days.

After that, Chan hung out with Minho and his friends a lot more, It was nice for the older to finally have a social life. Over the coming months he grew to adore this family he had found. Minho and Chan hung out and got to know each other so much more one on one as well, and Chan’s small crush on the younger only grew bigger and bigger, however the two continued to dance around each other. Much to the annoyance of everyone else.

Woojin who had become something of a confidant for Chan was getting increasingly tired with the pair. It might be the amount that Chan came to him to whine about how cute Minho was, and how he would never like him, etc, but Woojin was getting very close to locking the pair in a cupboard and hoping for the best.

Felix however used every opportunity he could to tell Minho that he should just grow some balls and ask Chan out already. Minho however never seemed to keen on the idea not wanting to wreck what was already a beautiful friendship. So Felix devised a plan to force the two to actually confess, which was he would invite Minho to hang out and Jeongin would invite Chan, and then Jeonglix just wouldn’t turn up and leave Minho and Chan to what was most defiantly a date.

Luckily for Felix, his plan worked and Minho grew the balls to confess to Chan.

After that the couple where well inseparable, and utterly gross. Felix nearly preferred when they were pining. They were entirely too cuddly and affectionate, and Chan loved it.

Chan had never had a proper relationship before, he had never really been in love before, and Lee Minho was the perfect choice for his first and hopefully only love. Chan had fallen hard and fast for the younger. The next year of their relationship felt like a dream to Chan, about 9 months in Minho had practically moved into Chan’s flat, and Chan knew then his favourite thing was to wake up to Minho. To see him in the early morning glow, peaceful and happy.

Chan also loved that he was practically a housewife in a way. He worked out of his, no wait, their home, having the shop be just under his flat, where as Minho worked across town. Chan loved seeing the way Minho’s face brightened when he finally entered the flat and saw Chan had already prepared them dinner. Chan adored the domesticity of it all, and while yes, he still had the same routine as before, having Lee Minho there made everything brighter.

Chan was always the first to rise in the morning, which was no different today, their one-year anniversary. Chan opened his eyes to a face full of Minho, he smiled softly and kissed the youngers cheek before getting up off the bed.

Chan began his morning routine by checking the shop downstairs, the break ins have been getting more frequent recently and something about it unsettled Chan, so he always liked the check the shop make sure nothing too bad had occurred.

When he went down, he sighed at the broken window, again. He swept up the remaining glass and looked around to make sure nothing else was damaged. Luck was on his side today it, seemed as nothing else was too damaged. He headed back upstairs ready to start making pancakes for breakfast.

When he got upstairs however, he noticed the front door to the apartment was wide open, at first he thought that he must have left it open, but then he heard a scream, and he knew it was something else entirely.

He ran inside and saw Minho with a knife held to his throat.

“Channie” Minho whimpered clearly terrified.

“Minho!” Chan said and tried to step towards him.

“Any closer and I’ll slice his throat” The intruder said.

Chan stopped, “What do you want” Chan asked eyes stuck on Minho, trying to find a way to save him.

“I want you to understand the price,” The intruder declared.

“What do you mean, please let him go” Chan said tears already rolling down his face.

“What I mean, is that you sold me a star to save to my sister, but all it did was kill my cousin instead, you, you didn’t tell me that was the price! I lost someone else to save my sister, but that wasn’t enough because the guilt killed my sister, I lost them both when I was meant to save them,” The intruder yelled.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have sold you that star, I didn’t know that would happen, please, I knew there was a price, I knew you would lose something I didn’t know t would be that” Chan explained, “Now please let him go please,” Chan begged, trying again to step forward.

“I said STOP” The intruder yelled, “You still don’t understand!”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t, please just let him go,” Chan continued to beg.

“No, you need to feel my pain” The intruder said.

After that everything happened all to quickly, the intruder stabbed Minho in the side and the fled. Chan practically dove to Minho’s side holding him in his arms as he bled out. Chan was crying and couldn’t control it, he couldn’t let Minho go not like this.

He carefully laid Minho down, and stood up. Minho reached out to Chan begging him to stay with him, to let him go. Chan couldn’t do that.

The older went to the safe where the stars one and gave it to himself. He wished, wished for Minho to be okay and healed, that he could handle the price whatever it was.

Later in the hospital he found out what the price was.

Woojin, Felix, Jeongin, Jisung, Changbin, Seungmin and Hyunjin, all come to the hospital together, Chan went to greet them but none of them knew who he was.

The nurse came out and said that Minho was perfectly fine and healthy, and could go home at any time. Chan went to visit him only to find that Minho too had no clue who he was.

Chan decided it would be better like that. With Minho o knowing who he was so he left. He left his family and the one he loved in that hospital. He vowed to never sell a star again, because no one was truly ready for the price they would pay.


End file.
